What is everyone’s opinion as to what the best client device is to watch Plex on a TV? I would like to take any Windows HTPC type system out of the running.
All of my mobile devices are Android. I just cant decide between the multitude of Android set top boxes and Roku or other streaming players, I would like for the device to cost $100 or less, but could spend more if convinced.
Right now I am using my XBox 360. The Plex interface is a little stale and generally speaking the 360 is harder for my guests to navigate to get to Plex.
Thanks for the help 
It all depends on what you expect from the device.
Should it be able to do other things beside Plex? Like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video?
Do you have a surround sound setup? How good shall the quality of the surround sound get? TrueHD? Atmos?
Is a infrared (vs. radio frequency) remote control good enough? Do you want to avoid yet another remote control if possible?
Well you can eliminate PMP, Roku, XboxOne (and I assume PS4 is the same) because of the ridiculous way posters are stacked.
@OttoKerner said:
It all depends on what you expect from the device.
Should it be able to do other things beside Plex? Like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video?
Do you have a surround sound setup? How good shall the quality of the surround sound get? TrueHD? Atmos?
Is a infrared (vs. radio frequency) remote control good enough? Do you want to avoid yet another remote control if possible?
I dont currently have any surround sound system. My receiver crapped out and I have not replaced it. THat being said Audio quality does matter to me and I would like to be able to output as high of a quality of audio as possible once I end up getting a new receiver.
My preference would be an infrared remote. I currently have a Logitech harmony remote and would like to be able to program the remote to work with the new device.
I cancelled my Netflix, I have Amazon Prime but cant say I have used it for streaming in a very long time. I would say the one service I might want in the future is Hulu depending on what their announcement that they will eventually carry Live TV actually pans out to.
I want a device that supports wired gigabit ethernet. I just dont want to deal with issues that wireless brings.
Ideally also I would want the ‘Home Screen’ of the device to be very basic. If I only use Plex and Hulu, that is all I want on the screen. I am not against the idea of building something if that is what it would take, but I really need it to be silent, reliable, super easy to use.
@johnson.patrickw said:
Well you can eliminate PMP, Roku, XboxOne (and I assume PS4 is the same) because of the ridiculous way posters are stacked.
Navigating in my XBox 360 is laborious. Sooo slow that I usually end up pulling out my phone and casting to the XB360 so I can avoid the Plex interface that it uses.
I think you could use a Roku or a Raspberry Pi2/3.
The latter would be a pure Plex client, though. But it plays some more media formats than the Roku natively, thus avoiding transcoding and therefore high cpu load on the server and quailty degradation.
I have a Roku 3 on one TV and an Apple TV 4 on the other TV. Both work great. I also have a ps4, but it can be a bit slower, but it works well too. As long as you have a good server and router, you should be fine with any of those.
@johnson.patrickw said:
Well you can eliminate PMP, Roku, XboxOne (and I assume PS4 is the same) because of the ridiculous way posters are stacked.
That is absolutely absurd. I do not know about Xbox or PS4 but both Roku an PMP are easy and quite pleasant to use. The interfaces are far from perfect and but the do the job well and that is what is truly important.
I mainly use Roku because it does so much more than just Plex but I also have a Raspberry Pi with PMP installed and I even have a small PC set up as a HTPC and I run OpenPHT on it. (I would run PMP but the little beast is only 32 bit and PMP requires 64 bit) I even have a Fire TV and it has basically the same interface as PMP and Roku.
With the other devices I have I still use my Rokus about 85-90% of the time. It is simply the easiest and most flexible of the devices I have.
@Elijah_Baley said:
@johnson.patrickw said:
Well you can eliminate PMP, Roku, XboxOne (and I assume PS4 is the same) because of the ridiculous way posters are stacked.
That is absolutely absurd. I do not know about Xbox or PS4 but both Roku an PMP are easy and quite pleasant to use. The interfaces are far from perfect and but the do the job well and that is what is truly important.
I mainly use Roku because it does so much more than just Plex but I also have a Raspberry Pi with PMP installed and I even have a small PC set up as a HTPC and I run OpenPHT on it. (I would run PMP but the little beast is only 32 bit and PMP requires 64 bit) I even have a Fire TV and it has basically the same interface as PMP and Roku.
With the other devices I have I still use my Rokus about 85-90% of the time. It is simply the easiest and most flexible of the devices I have.
Don’t get me wrong, I use the Plex app for XboxOne as my primary vehicle for consuming content on my server. However, all four of the apps I listed have that weird poster stacking methodology which really isn’t user friendly.
Roku 3 is my go-to at home, and HDMI out from the android app on my phone when travelling.
I’m not sure if it’s the best Plex client, but the Roku (3) is a darn good device and the Plex client is wonderful. I think it might be the best channel (app) on the Roku. I really like the Netflix channel too because it’s so simple and fast, but Plex seems to really push the Roku platform. I love the new improvements too.
I wouldn’t recommend the Roku just for Plex, but if you use other services like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, VUDU, Sling, Crackle, TV Everywhere (FOX, ABC, Syfy, HBO, etc.), etc., then I think it’s the best choice. It’s all about simplicity and content with the Roku, and they excel at both. It’s actually a surprisingly fast little device too.
Don’t know why anyone hasn’t mentioned OpenPHT? It’s fantastic.
@danjames92 said:
Don’t know why anyone hasn’t mentioned OpenPHT? It’s fantastic.
I did mention that but it does not fall into my top three. One reason that I do not include it in my goto apps is that it is not officially supported and another is that I find its interface clumsy. While I understand that many people like the interface I do not. I keep it available because of my belief that you can never have too much redundancy in playback options. It sits at my 4th choice but it is there if I need it.
@Elijah_Baley said:
@danjames92 said:
Don’t know why anyone hasn’t mentioned OpenPHT? It’s fantastic.
I did mention that but it does not fall into my top three. One reason that I do not include it in my goto apps is that it is not officially supported and another is that I find its interface clumsy. While I understand that many people like the interface I do not. I keep it available because of my belief that you can never have too much redundancy in playback options. It sits at my 4th choice but it is there if I need it.
Community driven is probably the closest to being supported especially as it’s under the Rasplex umbrella. Fair enough. It’s probably number 1 for me as I love the GUI. When scaling methods come in 1.6, I will be mostly content. What’s your favourite?
@danjames92 said:
@Elijah_Baley said:
@danjames92 said:
Don’t know why anyone hasn’t mentioned OpenPHT? It’s fantastic.
I did mention that but it does not fall into my top three. One reason that I do not include it in my goto apps is that it is not officially supported and another is that I find its interface clumsy. While I understand that many people like the interface I do not. I keep it available because of my belief that you can never have too much redundancy in playback options. It sits at my 4th choice but it is there if I need it.
…What’s your favourite?
As I have said before, Roku is goto device. On it I use the new player (Plex Pass version) mostly but I keep RARflix loaded as well, just in case, and for a few things that the regular channel does not do, yet.
I’ve got Plex running on Roku 3, a Lenovo Ideastick (OpenPHT) and my Xbox One and generally the Roku client is my go to client. Extremely reliable and solid. The Xbox One client is ok, but behind on features. OpenPHT is ok, but not a massive fan of the standard skin and any of the other skins I’ve tried don’t really do it for me.
Roku for the simplest out-of-box experience, Raspberry Pi for the best technical client
For the Roku, you can get the 2015 model Roku 2 and have the same CPU and memory as the Roku 3 for a few bucks less (often available for about $60).
@sremick said:
Roku for the simplest out-of-box experience, Raspberry Pi for the best technical client
For the Roku, you can get the 2015 model Roku 2 and have the same CPU and memory as the Roku 3 for a few bucks less (often available for about $60).
I had previously considered a Pi. I would need to get it to work with an iR remote control. IT needs to be dummy proof. I want to have it powered on in Plex and have the Plex interface be easy to navigate and not a chore like it is on the XBox 360.
